Ania Vu | Composer, Pianist

ABOUT

Polish of Vietnamese descent composer and pianist, Ania Vu (née Vu Dang Minh Anh) is pursuing a Ph.D. as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her recent music explores varied notions of time, musical energy related to form, and the interplay between linguistical sound properties and meanings. Ania also writes her own text that then serve as points of departure in her compositional process; so far, she has been exploring writing in Polish. Her current mentors are Marcos Balter, James Primosch, and Anna Weesner. In 2017, she received her BM in composition and theory from the Eastman School of Music.

Ania is a recipient of an Honorable Mention and a two-time finalist of the ASCAP Morton Gould Competition Young Composers Awards, and a finalist of the 2019 Kaleidoscope Call for Scores. In the fall of 2019, she was commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet to write a new piece for their "Music & Migration" 2019-20 concert season. Then recently, two of her works have been selected to be on Petrichor Records "New Music by Living Composers", and she has been invited to attend Tanglewood as a Composer Fellow for the summer of 2020 (which is now postponed to 2021). Upcoming events include a residency at I-Park Foundation, and a collaboration with SO percussion.

Her music has been performed by the MIVOS and Daedalus Quartets, TAK ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Iridium Saxophone Quartet, and has been heard at several festivals, including Tage Neuer Musik in Regensburg (Germany), Valencia International Performance Academy (Spain), Red Note New Music Festival (USA), SoundSCAPE (Italy), and Women in Music (USA).

For more information about her piano background, performances and teaching, please scroll down to Piano.

Outside of music, Ania has a passion for languages, and speaks fluent English, Polish, French, and Vietnamese, in addition to having studied Latin and German; currently, she is working on learning Modern Greek. She also enjoys traveling - having visited 30 countries so far -, wandering in all kinds of museums, and ballroom dancing.

EVENTS

2020

6/18/20 - 8/17/20 NOW ONLINE; all fellows are reinvited to attend in person in 2021

Ania attends Tanglewood Music Center.

5/5/20, POSTOPNED

Ania premieres Joshua Hey's multimedia theater Derendered with members of the Arcana Ensemble, Philadelphia, PA

4/23/20, 7:00PM, POSTOPNED

Ania and Paulina Swierczek are invited by the Skalny Center to perform a recital of Chopin's works. Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY

4/18/20, 7:30PM POSTOPNED

Premiere of a new piece by Sō percussion. The Annenberg Center, Univeristy of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

4/3/20, 7:30PM, CANCELLED

Performance of Five in One by a student ensemble at the 2020 International New Music Festival at USF. Univeristy of South Florida, FL

3/7/20, 5PM, CANCELLED

Ania performs her pieces Against Time and Dark Whims, and Joshua Hey's afterimage at the 2020 CMS Northeast Conference at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

2/15/20, 8PM

Performance of a może... by Rose Hegele with other Boston Conservatory alumni at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee New Music Festival. Boston Conservatory at Berklee, MA

1/25/20, 7:30PM

Performance of Against Time at the HfKM-Regensburg Tage Neuer Musik 2020. Konzertsaal der HfKM Regensburg, Germany

2019

12/6/19, 8PM

Penn Sound Collective. Full premiere of I yearn, therefore I am by the Daedalus Quartet. Ania also performs Groundwater by Flannery Cunningham and afterimage by Joshua Hey. Rose Recital Hall, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA

11/15/19, 12PM

Premiere of I yearn, therefore I am by the Daedalus Quartet. Kelly Writers' House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

11/2/19, 1PM

Ania performs Against Time at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, PA

7/11/19, 7:30PM

Premiere of String Quartet no.2 by the Mivos Quartet at La Mutant, Valencia, Spain

5/19/19, 1PM

Ania performs Kurtag's Hommage à R. Schumann in a trio at Curtis Summerfest. Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA

4/5/19, 7:30PM

An Evening of Polish Music - Ania and soprano Paulina Swierczek perform works by Chopin, Lutoslawski, Szymanowski, and Ania, among others. Event hosted by the Skalny Center. Interfaith Chapel, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

3/16/19, 8PM

Penn Sound Collective - Premiere of Tik-Tak by TAK ensemble. Arch Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2/13/19, 7:30PM

Premiere of Dragonflies by Iridium Saxophone Quartet at the Red Note New Music Workshop , Illinois State University, Normal, IL

MUSIC

2020

New piece for Percussion Quartet (to be premiered by Sō Percussion)

2019

I yearn, therefore I am for String Quartet

String Quartet no. 2

Tik-Tak for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Percussion

Dragonflies for Saxophone Quartet

2018

Gra dźwięków, gra słów (Soundplay, wordplay) for Female Voice, Percussion, and Piano

Five in One for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano

Against Time for solo Piano

2017

Symphonic Suite for Orchestra

Fantasia for Orchestra

2016

String Quartet no. 1, four movements

Raindrops for Fixed Media

2015

Dark Whims for Piano, arranged for Wind Ensemble

Mrs. and Mr. Potato Heads for Flute and Bassoon

Paroles du Chagrin for Soprano and Piano

Espace for solo Piano

2014

Dark Whims for solo Piano

Earliest Works

Piano Variations [2012]

Somewhere over the Clouds for Saxophone Soprano and Piano [2012]

PIANO

Aside from being a composer, Ania is also an active pianist performing solo and chamber music, both in standard and contemporary repertoire. She loves performing new music, and has collaborated with a number of her composition colleagues and premiered their works, in addition to performing her own music. Her piano teachers include Amy Yang, Vincent Lenti, Irina Rumiancewa-Dabrowski and her mother Hong Anh Dang. She has taken lessons and masterclasses with artists such as Dang Thai Son, Wojciech Świtała, Thomas Rosenkranz, Andrzej Jasiński, Philippe Giusiano, and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń. As a pianist, she has won several awards in national and international competitions in Europe, and has performed in the United States, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Vietnam, and Poland.

In the spring of 2019, Ania and soprano Paulina Swierczek were invited by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies to perform a program of Polish music at the University of Rochester. Ania played solo during the first half, and was joined by Paulina on the second. The concert featured works by Chopin, Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Moniuszko, Bacewicz, Palej, and three works of Ania’s. In May 2019, she received a full scholarship to be part of Curtis Summerfest’s “Chamber Music for Adults”, where she performed Kurtag’s trio Hommage à R. Schumann. The trio was coached by Amy Yang, David Hayes, Mimi Stillman, and Hanchien Lee.

Ania draws great satisfaction from being a music educator, teaching piano and music theory. She maintains a piano studio of students of all ages and various skill levels. At the University of Pennsylvania, she has taught an introductory course to music theory and musicianship, and an intermediate-level ear training and keyboard skills lab. In June 2015, she participated in a program where selected musicians traveled to Zimbabwe and South Africa to teach and perform.

Flannery Cunningham - Groundwater

[YouTube]

GALLERY

CONTACT

For more information or inquiries about scores, commissions, or taking lessons, please don’t hesitate to contact me at ania.vu94♪gmail.com (after replacing ♪ with @).